Homeland Security On Beaver Island

Bill should send this David Broder column (8-25-05 Washington Post) to Franny and Frank.

When you step off the car ferry in St. James, instead of the familiar line of storefronts, what you first see is an 8-foot-tall steel fence whose sharp-pointed spears bend outward at the top, completely surrounding the dock area to thwart any intruders.

The fence and its twin in Charlevoix, the port city on the mainland that is the other terminus of the Beaver Island Boat Co., were built this spring at a cost of $127,000, divided between the debt-ridden federal government and the dead-broke state of Michigan.

As Harbormaster Margo Marks explained to me, the Maritime Security Act, passed after Sept. 11, required that any ports served by vessels carrying 150 passengers or more must be secured against trespassers or terrorists by mid-2005. "It was either hire security guards 24-7," she said, "or put up the fence."

Now, Beaver Island, with a year-round population of about 500, may seem an unlikely target. But who knows? The terrorists could have the Whisky Point Lighthouse on their list of iconic structures, right after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.